August 25, 2003
An Ounce of Common Sense
They come from all over — China, Russia, Mexico, Ethiopia, even France — looking for opportunity and for better lives for their children. These are not the tired, hungry and poor yearning simply to be free, and it's not just America they've come to. These are the huddled masses yearning to learn English, and they've come to Vegas to do it.While battles continue to rage in states like Oregon, Texas, Colorado, Illinois and New York, where some language education "experts" still cling to an outmoded construction known as bilingual education, Las Vegas hotel-casinos teach English the way new Americans have been learning it for generations: immersion, sink or swim.
Las Vegas has been quietly succeeding where public schools subscribing to the bilingual model have failed — and it has done so simply by not tampering with an individual's natural predisposition to grasp a new language faster when it is the only tool available. So while school children in bilingual ed — whose adaptive young brains are poised to assimilate language within months — are unable to read, write or form a clear thought in English, 40- and 60-year-old immigrants laboring as cooks, guest room attendants and bellhops at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino must communicate with co-workers and customers the only way that they can be understood — in English.
Interesting read that can be found in its entirety here.
Posted by Ithildin at August 25, 2003 5:29 PM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE